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Question: Every year, we solicit for our Annual Fund and publish an Annual Report at year's end.  This year, we are also in a silent phase of a capital campaign. Our concern is with listing donors in the Annual Report.  We have some families who have given to the capital campaign, but not the Annual Fund, and vice versa.  Since we are in a silent phase of the campaign, we have only individually solicited our major donors, so we are hesitant to list capital donors in the report, for fear of offending those families who have not yet been given the opportunity to give a gift. How do we list campaign gifts in the Annual Report?  Do we list them at all?

Answer:  Given this situation, Bee recommends that you not list donors to the capital campaign during this phase…  To read more or to ask your own question, click here.

Top Gifts of the Week

• $100 million contribution from David Rockefeller to Harvard University to be used to increase international learning opportunities for Harvard undergraduates and to build three new study centers at the Fogg Art Museum.  (boston.com, April 25, 2008)

• $63.7 million in grants from a consortium of philanthropists, private donors, and banks to the Kimmel Center, Inc. to relieve it from liability for construction debt and substantially augment its endowment.   H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, the William Penn Foundation, the Neubauer Family Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts will contribute $25 million to retire the debt along with Wachovia and Citizen Banks.   Concurrently, Sidney Kimmel has pledged $25 million more to the endowment, bringing his total support to the center in his name to $60 million. $13.7 million more has been provided from the Board of Directors.  Dorrance H. Hamilton has contributed $2.5 million more, bringing her total support to $10 million.  Also, $5.5 million in state funds and $2 million in Philadelphia city funds will be provided for capital improvements.  (broadwayworld.com, April 23, 2008)

• $50 million grant from The Bernard Osher Foundation toward a permanent scholarship endowment for low-income California community college students.  The endowment will pay for $1,000 scholarships to help students defray costs for textbooks, lab materials and costs beyond registration fees at the state's 109 community colleges. The foundation also hopes its donation will spur a larger philanthropic drive for community colleges.  (sacbee.com, May 5, 2008)

• $25 million matching pledge from The Stardust Foundation of Jerry Bisgrove to the Valley of the Sun United Way Foundation in Arizona to support administrative costs and encourage other donors to give. The foundation will match 50 cents for every dollar pledged to United Way over the next five years.  The gift is the largest to that United Way and is believed to be the third-largest pledge to any United Way in the country.   (Arizona Republic, May 2, 2008)

• $24 million from the estate of Mabel Peters Caruth to The Communities Foundation of Texas to double its capability to provide competitive grants.  (dallasnews.com, April 27, 2008)

• The Internal Revenue Service plans to introduce a new program this year for charities in jeopardy of losing their tax-exempt status for failure to file Forms 990.  Organizations will be allowed to file their missing forms without penalty, paying only a small fee based on their size. The program is a response to a tough new rule contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that calls for any organization that fails to file its required tax returns for three consecutive years to automatically lose its tax-exempt status.  Since the rule went into effect starting with the 2007 tax year, 2010 will be the first year that charities could have their status revoked.  The IRS especially wants to help small nonprofit groups that may not even know about the filing requirement, which directs tax-exempt organizations with at least $25,000 in annual revenue to submit the Form 990 each year.  An IRS study in 2006 found that in nearly one-quarter of the cases where groups did not file a form, the person responsible for maintaining the organization’s books and records was unaware of the obligation to submit an annual return.  As it now stands, the penalty for late filings of the Forms 990 can run as high as $10,000 a year for small organizations and $50,000 a year for big ones. Under the program, the delinquent tax forms will still need to be filed, but late fees will be waived and the charities will retain their tax-exempt status.  (The Chronicle of Philanthropy, April 30, 2008)

• Almost one-third of foundations say they have stepped up their giving this year to help families, provide human services, or support economic development — and 37%  percent said they planned to increase such grant making next year, according to a new study by the Council on Foundations.  At the same time, 43% said they expected to give less next year overall because of declines in stock-market values — including more than half of surveyed community foundations. The study findings are consistent with a report The Chronicle released last month examining giving plans by the nation’s wealthiest foundations.  (The Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 1, 2008)

• The board of the Charles M. Bair Family Museum, in Martinsdale, Montana, which closed the facility in 2002, is being ordered by the state Supreme Court to reconvene within six months after a ruling in which the court found the board breached its fiduciary duties by closing the museum.  The court said the board did not spend enough money to establish and maintain the museum.  As a result of the court’s ruling, the museum’s trustee, U.S. Bank, was ordered to create a new board, the paper reports.  The museum was established after the death of Alberta M. Bair, the heiress to a family fortune her father had built through his work in minerals, finance, and sheep.  It was home to European antiques, works of art, and Native American artifacts, the paper reports.   (The New York Times, April 30, 2008)